F20 Beta release announcement

There's no uncertainty about this: The Fedora 20, "Heisenbug" beta release is here and is a fantastic sneak peek into the final Fedora 20 release. It's jam packed with fantastic free and open source software, lovingly configured and ready to use.

What is the Beta Release?

The beta release is the last important milestone before the release of Fedora 20. A Beta release is code-complete and bears a very strong resemblance to the third and final release. Only critical bug fixes will be pushed as updates up to the general release of Fedora 20. The final release of Fedora 20 is expected in early December. Meanwhile, download the beta of Fedora 20 and help us make it even better:

We need your help to make Fedora 20 the best release yet, so please take some time to download and try out the beta and make sure the things that are important to you are working. If you find a bug, please report it – every bug you uncover is a chance to improve the experience for millions of Fedora users worldwide. Together, we can make Fedora 20 a rock-solid distribution. We have a culture of coordinating new features and pushing fixes upstream as much as feasible and your feedback will help improve not only Fedora but Linux and free software on the whole. (See the end of this announcement for more information on how to help.)

ARM as a Primary Architecture

While Fedora has supported a number of hardware architectures over the years, x86/x86_64 has been the default for the majority of Fedora users and for the Linux community in general.

ARM, however, has been making massive strides. It already dominates the mobile market, and is becoming a go-to platform for hobbyists and makers, and is showing enormous promise for the server market as well.

NetworkManager is also getting support for bonding interfaces and bridging interfaces. Bonding and bridging are used in many enterprise setups and are necessary for virtualization and fail-over scenarios.

No Default Sendmail, Syslog

Fedora 20 removes some services that many users find unnecessary, though (of course) they will remain available as installable packages for users who might need them.

Cloud and Virtualization Improvements

The Fedora 20 release continues the Fedora tradition of adopting and integrating leading edge technologies used in cloud computing. This release includes a number of features that will make working with virtualization and cloud computing much easier.

First-Class Cloud Images

The Fedora Cloud SIG has been working hard on providing images that are well-suited to running as guests in public and private clouds like Amazon Web Services (AWS) and OpenStack. If you're using public or private cloud, you should definitely test-drive the beta images today!

OS Installer Support for LVM Thin Provisioning

LVM has introduced thin provisioning technology, which provides greatly improved snapshot functionality in addition to thin provisioning capability. This change will make it possible to configure thin provisioning during OS installation.

VM Snapshot UI with virt-manager

This change will make taking VM snapshots much easier. qemu and libvirt have all the major pieces in place for performing safe VM snapshots/checkpoints, however there isn't any simple discoverable UI. This feature will track adding that UI to virt-manager, and any other virt stack bits that need to be fixed/improved. This includes adding functionality to libvirt to support deleting and rebasing to external snapshots.

Developer Goodness

ACPICA Tools Update

Fedora 20 includes an update to the ACPICA tools from the Component Architecture (ACPICA) project. This provides developers with a significant number of additional tools that have never been included in Fedora before -- for example, tools that allow one to create an ACPI table and execute the methods contained in the table in user space, instead of having to modify existing tables. The update brings Fedora up-to-date for ACPI development and exploration, and reflects the reference implementation as closely as possible.

Ruby on Rails 4.0

This update will keep Fedora up-to-date and will ensure that the current Ruby on Rails developers stay with us as they will get support for system-packaged Ruby on Rails of the latest version. Apart from that, Rails 4.0 also bring improved functionality, speed. security and better modularization.

GNU C Library 2.18

Fedora 20 includes the GNU C Library version 2.18, which brings the project up to sync with the upstream release from the GNU project, released in August. This resolves a number of bugs from upstream as well as security issues. This upgrade should be backwards compatible.

Even More Changes

Fedora prides itself on bringing cutting-edge technologies to users of open source software around the world, and this release continues that tradition. No matter what you do, Fedora 20 has the tools you need to help you get things done.

Desktop Environments and Spins

The Fedora project strives to provide the best desktop experiences possible for users, from desktop environment to application selection.

GNOME 3.10

Fedora 20 Beta will have a preview of GNOME 3.10. GNOME 3.10 will have a number of new applications and new features that will please GNOME-lovers in the Fedora 20 release. This release includes a new music application (gnome-music), a new maps application (gnome-maps), a revamp for the system status menu, and Zimbra support in Evolution.

KDE Plasma Workspaces 4.11

The Fedora KDE SIG has rebased to KDE 4.11 for Fedora 20. This release includes faster Nepomuk indexing, improvements to Kontact, KScreen integration in KWin, Metalink/HTTP support for KGet, and much more.

X2Go

The current nx package in Fedora is based on the last open source release from NoMachine. NoMachine is no longer developing nx as an open source project. The X2Go project has taken the nx code and is maintaining it as well as developing new client and server code around it.

Spins

Spins are alternate versions of Fedora. In addition to various desktop environments for Fedora, spins are also available as tailored environments for various types of users via hand-picked application sets or customizations.

Contributing

There are many ways to contribute beyond bug reporting. You can help translate software and content, test and give feedback on software updates, write and edit documentation, design and do artwork, help with all sorts of promotional activities, and package free software for use by millions of Fedora users worldwide. To get started, visit http://join.fedoraproject.org today!